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Do Men Find Very Skinny Women Attractive?

Because of our work extolling the great value of women's fat, we are often asked why then do men find super-skinny models so attractive? The answer is: they don't. Men don't find very skinny women attractive. How often do you see a guy ogling the latest issue of Mademoiselle or Vogue? The ultra-thin fashion models whose photos adorn these magazines and who flaunt the latest Parisian designs on runways are quite different from the women who are attractive enough to men that they are willing to pay to look at them, like Playboy Playmates.

The average Playmate is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 115 pounds. This gives her a BMI (body mass index) of 18.5, and most have BMI's of 18 or 19. These are similar to the BMI's men prefer when rating the attractiveness of images of women with varying BMI's. They might seem pretty skinny, but are they thinner than other young women? Comparing them with young American women before the obesity epidemic (or those in European countries today), we find that Playmates are not really much skinnier than average. Before 1980, almost two-thirds of American women in their late teens had a BMI below 20. So Playmates are not unusually thin, nor have they been getting skinnier over the years.

What makes Playmates quite different from other young women is that they are much more curvaceous. The typical Playmate's bust, waist, and hip measurements are 35-23-34. Using the difference between bust and waist, and waist and hips in relation to height, a typical Playmate is 54% more curvy than an average university undergraduate. This is what gives her the hourglass figure that men find so attractive. The reasons men find these curvy figures so appealing can be found in our earlier blog.

Fashion models are quite different from Playboy models. Their average BMI is only 17.1 and almost half have BMI's below 17 (compared with just 6% of Playmates). They have much smaller bust sizes (by 3 inches), larger waists, and similar sized hips. They are also extraordinarily tall, averaging 5 feet 10, taller than 99 percent of American women. The reason they are so tall is that it makes them appear to be even skinnier. A typical Playmate's hips are 53% of her height, similar to other women with the same BMI. But the hips of a top fashion model are only 46% of her height, making her look 20% thinner and actually quite boyish. (The ratio in a typical teenage boy is actually higher: 49%!) Fashion models are also much less curvy than Playmates: a typical Playmate is 36% more curvy than a typical fashion model. And since it is their curvaceousness which makes Playmates so attractive to men, fashion models generally aren't on men's radar.

Unfortunately, many women seem to believe that men find super-skinny women like fashion models especially attractive. In study after study, women consistently underestimate the amount of body fat that men prefer. When asked to predict the figure that men will find most attractive, women consistently choose a skinnier figure than the men actually prefer. The figures women think men prefer are more like fashion models than Playmates. (For what it's worth, men also misjudge women's preferences for male muscle and genital size.) The figures that the men actually prefer are also much closer to the women's own figures than the skinnier ones women believe that men like. This misreading of men's desires may encourage some women to mistakenly think they would be more attractive to men if they weighed less.

Just why today's fashion models are selected to appear so thin is harder to explain. Since typical young American women today are twenty pounds heavier than they were forty years ago, those who seem to be quite slender are much more of a rarity today. It is also easier and less costly to produce clothes with fewer labor-intensive darts and tucks, but these more linear clothes do not show well on a curvy model. So, one possibility is that production costs and marketing strategies combine to create a demand for less curvy models. In addition, it may be that male fashion designers are more likely to prefer boyish figures.

Whatever the reasons may be, the differences in the models featured in Vogue and Playboy reveal that men and women don't currently agree on the most attractive female body shape. Which viewpoint is more likely to reflect the healthiest option for women? Over evolutionary history, men's genetic contributions to the next generation depended on their ability to make subtle and accurate assessments about which women would make the best moms. In contrast, women got no reproductive payoff from any ability to make similar assessments about other women's bodies. Hence, odd as it may seem, men's unconscious preferences are more likely to tell us about what has been healthy for women. For more on these topics, see our book, Why Women Need Fat.

An interesting study would be to expand this study to the internet with respect to porn comsumption.

Is there a certain type of body that men find attractive with respect to porn (more hits on site featuring women who are very slender vice women who are not?, etc) versus only Vogue and Playboy?

Because the internet is where most men are looking at these images now.

And many of the images on porn websites seem to be of very young looking women (although they are of legal age) with extremely slender, adolescent looking figures - figures that are simply not realistic for women once they mature.

A book was published last year analyzing men's searches for internet porn. It's called A Billion Wicked Thoughts.

It reported that there are many more searches for overweight women than for underweight women. Also that age is a frequent search term, with the greatest number of age-related searches looking for very young women, but many searches looking for older women as well.

I find that I watched more porn as an adolescent than I do now in my early mid twenties. The girls were fit, but they weren't skinny. I like a girl I can cuddle with that isn't going to feel like a skeleton. Most guys I know, have agreed in one way or another.

Teenage boys are the lowest status members of post-pubescent society. The runway models really are little more than walking mannequins for the most part, as it's the clothes which are being put on display for sale. (They aren't called "clothes horses" for nothing.) An attractive woman in the head-to-toe sense could be a threatening distraction to lots of potential consumers.

People need to be reminded that it isn't heterosexual men that are pushing the super skinny model body. Its female or gay designers/ fashion magazine editors. I say who cares what they think if you're a heterosexual female. Granted actresses are starving themselves to fit sample sizes these days. Even Victoria Secret models are looking a little bony these days. They are as tall as fashion models and only a little less anorexic looking. Its ironic that these ideals are getting harsher while normal people are getting fatter.

I think the only men who really want an uber-skinny woman is a man with not much to offer below the belt. The less abdomen he has to deal with, the longer his three inches seems...to him. LOL. I'm just sayin'.

Some men don't have to worry about that (yo, bro!) and can enjoy a woman with some meat on her bones and 'cushion for the pushin'.

The natural curves of a woman, with hips, breasts, etc., is what piques a man's eye; not a woman straight as a board with no curves.

I beg to differ, I have always been attracted to very skinny women, not just thin but skinny. I prefer to cuttle with a bone, a phrase I read above. I have a nice size so your assesment couldn't be more wrong. Its just personal prefference I guess. I prefer small tit, small ass, and bony legs.

It has nothing to do with how well endowed a man is, although it might make you feel better about yourself to think so. People have different preferences. Some of us prefer a very thin woman. Anything over a hundred pounds is unnecessary. If you like a heavier woman, fine, I have no problem with that.

Just as heavier women have no right to put down thinner women, or vice versa, there's no reason to assume that you're more of a man because you prefer one type over another.

As a life-long thin woman, I must say I love the two dissenters here. It's not easy being skinny, even though other women assume it is. I will say, though, that it makes getting old a HECK of a lot easier. I just turned 40 and can still eat whatever I want. Most people guess me as somewhere between 22-28, and I've had no plastic surgery! Granted, I'm not as thin as I used to be. My BMI is 19, but used to be 16. I find this to be a great weight for my age because I don't want to be a super skinny old lady. But it sure is nice to still be slender! And due to ridiculous American size inflation, I still wear a size 0. Oh, and even though I'm dedicated to my marriage, it is flattering to get hit on (a lot) by younger men!

You don't look as young as you think...guarantee you look like bones and sinews...your face is no doubt drawn and haggard...get over it and eat 3 decent meals a day...you probably eat just 2 very average size meals and do little if any true exercise...that is not healthy

Skinny Minnie, Anonymous has shown us that he's just a troll, not to be taken seriously. For some people, belittling others is a way of making them feel better about their own pathetic lives. Pay no attention to him, just picture him in his mommy's basement, wearing a bathrobe and eating Cheetos. Without a date. Then go on about your life feeling great about yourself.

Women like you are all over Scottsdale Az where I live. They run around truly believing they can compete with beautiful, young girls. Believe me when I tell you, I'm an older too, I've been thin all my life and still am. Whoopie doo! Trust me when I say, no one is mistaking us for 22-28 yr olds sweetie. Get over yourself. You come across as really desperate for attention which makes me wonder if you're a happy person.

I think men find certain fashion models attractive, the ones with a bit of meat on the bones or a more athletic figure, found in Sports Illustrated rather than Vogue. Cindy Crawford, Christie Brinkley, Cheryl Tiegs etc. They wouldn't give Kate Moss or the creepily doll-like Lily Cole a second look, even though they are the ones parading in the women's mags, ergo women think they are the ideal to aspire to.

I really don't know why they use real people for runway work or fashion spreads if they don't look like real people. Why not use motorised tailor's dummies? Why is someone in Japan not working on a robotic model this instant?

while men may not prefer a skinny woman as his sexual partner, men DO prefer having an anorexic looking woman as his trophy wife, and Hollywood producers who perpetuate these standards are no exception. Women know this. This is one of most significant driving forces to remain dangerously thin for so many women in Hollywood, or women who just want to land a man with money, power, or success. It's not just women and gay designers that are dictating these standards.

I think Psychologists should be looking more at modern men's misogynistic perception of women or the age-old madonna/whore syndrome.

A cursory look at the women people would define as a "Trophy Wife" correlates with the data presented in the article, you'd be hard pressed to find a man who thinks dangerously skinny is attractive. Rich or not the biology is still the same.

Thanks for finally putting an end to this myth. Btw, who calls the fashion model amazing? Other women? I never got why super models kept being used as a standard for physical attraction, as in "she may not be the next supermodel, but". The author is right regarding women and body shape. And it's good if women could stop being selfconcscious about having the slightest fat. Bony or super toned female bodies look somewhat masculine.

Nobody, ever, have i met in all my years of living on this planet - has honestly considered fashion supermodels as the ideal body type overall - other then showing clothes or photography of clothing or other products for sale. Beautiful, sure - but ideal? Hell no, there are many women out there who are celebrated for their attractiveness, it's never been exclusively supermodels.
I don't understand articles like this that perpetuate this myth - that this has ever been a standard for physical attraction.
It hasn't. It isn't.
It is a standard for being a supermodel, to sell clothes and products.
Perhaps it could be considered why money (or lack of) is so tied into women's body image. It is really about money - you have a body that can sell items to consumers, or you don't.
And not being "worth more" makes women feel unattractive in our society.
And bullshit about bony or toned women's bodies looking "masculine" - most don't.
It would also be interesting to know why it is exactly that people feel the need to identify a specific body type - some women are thin and look gorgeous, some are voluptuous and look amazing, some are tall and hot, some short and hot, some round, some slender - diversity is part of beauty.
When you say one "type" of woman is better than another "type" you are objectifying women as a whole. Secondly, your opinion is preference - which is fine, but if your opinion needs to be bolstered by putting down another type or style, maybe it is based on some weak shit anyway.

A boob job is well within financial reach of most people and diet and exercise are much more difficult. I don't like "enhanced" stuff myself... but I guess that sort of thing is personal. I just don't think your argument is convincing. An interesting idea... but I think I disagree with you.

You are a man, no? If you were a woman you'd know that the Playboy bunny figure is actually more doable. We do not walk around naked and the right bra/ bra insert can add 1-3 cup sizes. There is also no height restriction on being a Playboy bunny. I can actually save money and get implants, but really I can lose weight and achieve the look with clothes on. There are even bathing suits that can come with heavy padding.

No matter how much weight I lose, I will never grow 5 inches or have the bone structure that would allow for the boyish frame of a runway model. The overwhelming majority of women are not 5'9" to 6'2" with teeny, tiny bones. Alot of those runway models are just very tall, awkward teenagers.

I know a few very tall, skinny dudes that could pull if off if not for their faces. I cannot recall many women I know now that could pull off runway model even with weight loss. There is in fact a famous male model that is walking the female fashion runways. His face is very pretty, but it is disturbing how his body doesn't stick out from the pack with his completely flat chest. It makes me feel abit better about myself, but I suppose it is abit insulting to women.

Padding can't replace the real thing. Anyone who knows you will know it's fake and you just end up feeling awkward and foolish walking around with a padded chest.

If you weren't born with big boobs and don't want to pay $5000+ for implants, it is much, much easier to lose weight and be skinny, so I agree that's why women idealize this more...it's attainable!!

Rail thin fashion models don't make me feel nearly as bad about myself as sexualized Playboy models. I look better than a lot of the runway fashion models! But I will never be able to look as good as Playboy models.

It is not that easy to lose heaps of weight. I know I'm not meant to be very skinny. I can still look pretty good, but no matter how much wieght I lose I'll never look lanky. Its not my build. At my best its probably Britney Spears or J. Lo. They have athletic builds and their boobs look natural.

I don't think people aren't aware that women wear padded bras. Women also dye their hair unnatural colours, use fake eyelashes and wear colored contacts. If someone isn't meant to have big boobs, implants can look more stupid than a good push-up bra. We've all seen the stick thin porn star with the freak show melons that look stuck on. Playboy bunnies are usually heavily airbrushed and they probably even use inserts/ extreme push-up bras with clothes. They don't make me feel bad. I know its an illusion. Its also the opinion of whats beauty of one old guy.

Most bras have padding. I regularly wear bras that add 0.5 inch and lift for extra umph. My most padded bra adds 2-3 cups and is worn for when I want cleavage. It doesn't look off and people get that is part of the look. I have a full B to small C. I'm losing weight so I might go to a B. Thats fine. I can fill out a shirt, exercise with few problems and not suffer back pain. If I wear padded bras for extra umph with clothes, its fine by me.

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very interesting article! No men do not like models! That is true but a couple of people got it right in their comments. I am a,male model and work and am friends with some of the top female.models in fashion. I am only saying that to emphasize I know first hand what I am talking about. I tell all my short or normal female friends this all the time(when I taje them out with me and my friends they feel insecure about their height/weight compared to us..yes even compared to the male models) Only gay/bi like runway models!(with the exception of a very few amount of guys whove been around fashion for such a long time theve developed this attraction) really rich guys/celebrities prettend like they like models but they just date them because it looks good! I personslly think bony tsll prepubesant does look better then normal/fat girls , cloths just look better and you photograph better...but then again I am bisexual... Regular straigh guys like shorter normal more approacheable girls...as for why girls want to look like fashion models? Simply because they are beautiful and the picture of perfection! Who doesnt want to be a model??!

PS:i know people say it all the time but its very true...most models look absolutely nothing like they do in their adds! Also everyone love yourself!and STOP HATING models...specially in a day when fashion celebrates models like andre pejic(boy that looks like a girl) kate moss(who is 5.5) niomi cambell (whos in her 40s) and lara stone(who is def not skinny n is completely taking over!)

That may be the case with you and your friends who like prepubescent girls, but most dudes are into chicks with womenly bodies....not skinny children. At least, most dudes I hang with. You gotta have something to separate the boys and girls from the women.

I think society needs to be reminded that skinny girls have self-esteem issues too. We parade under a banner of opening the ideals for beauty, but instead of accepting all body types as attractive to some, we either throw fat or skinny under the bus. Political correctness is making us so concerned with not offending the "real", "curvy" girls that we don't realize the implications this vocabulary has on skinny girls. Are we not "real"?

I understand how hard it is for girls who don't fit into Vogue's ideal body-- large portions of the media have been shoving it down their throats that no one will find them attractive unless they're skinny. As an overweight 12 year-old girl, that can do major psychological damgage. But what about the messages we're sending to young skinny girls? All I remember from my adolescence is tits and ass, tits and ass, all that is attractive is tits and ass. Pretty damaging, too, if nothing you do to your body will make it measure up.

My point is, there's no use in skinny girls saying no one likes bigger girls, and there's no use in bigger girls saying no one likes skinny girls. While every man has his caveman gut instinct, one can never underestimate the power of socialization. I have met a guy driven wild by just about every body type there is. Some guys think skinny girls are ugly. Some guys think fat girls are ugly. But I think it becomes dangerous in almost a reverse-racism way to post blogs that say, don't worry, men don't like skinny women anyway! Would you find that so acceptable to proclaim men don't find plus-sized women attractive? Yes, facts are facts, but there's no need to condemn a body type only because it's gotten some bad PR lately.

Thank you for writing this. I was going to write something similar but now I don't need to. I will emphasize, however, that endless comments about how unattractive skinny women are are just as harmful and hurtful. I am a slender woman but as a teenager I was very skinny. That's just in my genes. I'm a child of immigrant parents and we don't have the same bone structure of many other Americans. I naturally have a small frame. But I cannot tell you how many times complete strangers would comment on my size, tell me I needed to eat more, and think it was okay. Or how hurtful it was to hear actresses, writers, etc. talk about how skinny women were ugly as some sort of retribution for the equally damaging comments and attitudes about overweight women. Now, when I read an article such as this, I just shake my head and smile. There are some good points and other not so well-argued ones (for example, the authors compare the BMIs of teenage girls to Playboy playmates and conclude that it's Playboy playmates have "regular" women's bodies. Since when were teenage girls regular women? They're not women at all. That's the point). I also agree with the above comment that ALL women are real! We should not be putting any women down. If you are healthy and happy you radiate beauty and self-confidence and THAT is what men (and other women) are attracted to!

Thank you for writing this. I was going to write something similar but now I don't need to. I will emphasize, however, that endless comments about how unattractive skinny women are are just as harmful and hurtful. I am a slender woman but as a teenager I was very skinny. That's just in my genes. I'm a child of immigrant parents and we don't have the same bone structure of many other Americans. I naturally have a small frame. But I cannot tell you how many times complete strangers would comment on my size, tell me I needed to eat more, and think it was okay. Or how hurtful it was to hear actresses, writers, etc. talk about how skinny women were ugly as some sort of retribution for the equally damaging comments and attitudes about overweight women. Now, as a grown woman, when I read an article such as this, I just shake my head and smile. There are some good points and other not so well-argued ones (for example, the authors compare the BMIs of teenage girls to Playboy playmates and conclude that playmates have "regular" women's bodies. Since when were teenage girls regular women? They're not women at all, they're girls, and that's the point). I also agree with the above comment that ALL women are real! We should not be putting any women down. If you are healthy and happy you radiate beauty and self-confidence and THAT is what men (and other women) are attracted to!

There is a huge difference between skinny and slim. The same goes for the difference between curvy and chubby. The fact is that if you are eating the right food and doing about half an hour of exercise per day it doesn't matter what fucking dress size you are; you are probably hot.

I totally agree, you look best in the weight that was meant for you, but in shape! Plus-size models are rarely like the average overweight women, as they have waists and flat tummies. They demonstrate that even if your BMI is not the "ideal" number of 20.8, you can have a good figure.

Plus, a lot more than just the body goes into looking good, only we tend to forget it in our body-obsessed culture. I had a light bulb moment once when I photoshopped a friend's head on the body of Marylin Monroe for a birthday card. My friend is very elegant, but has not the prettiest face in the world. It was a picture of MM posing as Lillian Russell on a bicycle. After I had put the slightly horse-ish head of Rosi on MM's body, I was very astonished to see that the charm of the depicted person was gone. Time and time again, I compared the original with Marylin's beautiful face with the "transplant" version, and I recognized that the main part of the attraction was in the face, not in the figure.

BTW, Rosi laughed a lot, but asked me why I had to chose such a matronly, dowdy body for my creation. I explained that it was Marylin Monroe, but she only believed it after I showed the original. Obsessing with body details does not add to attraction, because a beautiful smile will very effectively mask many flaws.

There's a distinction between letting yourself go and not maintaining your body's health and physique and being slim, even if you don't have an "hour glass" bone structure. After all, we were never designed to sit around and not be active. What would we do if we had the same activities and food available as our erstwhile ancestors, the cavemen?

There's a distinction between letting yourself go and not maintaining your body's health and physique and being slim, even if you don't have an "hour glass" bone structure. After all, we were never designed to sit around and not be active. What would we do if we had the same activities and food available as our erstwhile ancestors, the cavemen?

I've actually been saying what this article says for years. Men aren't the ones telling women to get really really skinny. There is a flip-side to this though. I once dated a girl who was 5'2 and 90 pounds I think if I remember correctly. We dated for a number of years actually. She said other women were constantly telling her she was too thin. This used to make her angry because that was her natural body shape. She wasn't starving herself, or dieting. She ate whatever she wanted. She was just petite. She said it was always other women that gave her a problem with this never guys.

after reading the comments that cane after mine, specially that of SWF, I have to stress the fact that society does empathize alot with tge "curvy" or "normal" girl and completely attacks tge "skinny" girl. Alot of my runway friends(including myself) went through sooo many years of taunts and abuse and till this day have to deal with the "you need yo eat comments" before we started modeling. Even as an established model alot are self coutious abd deal with the accusations of drug use, starving ourself and sexuality stigmas! and btw my previous comment about only bisexual men liking skinny girls was wrong..i didnt mean skinny girls I meant runway models...and its just mzy opinion/observation from being in the industry...

Who got the idea skinny is the male ideal? It fits right in your feminist party line that men are collectively suppressing women, but is based on nothing. Runway models are generally not chosen by straight men and runway shows are generally not watched by straight men.

These are issues women have. Like michael1_4 I am dating a girl who eats like a beast but weighs 100 pounds at 5'3" and the only criticisms she has gotten are from other women. It is called intrasex competition.

A preference for healthy bodies is selected for, so you would expect to see an average preference for women with hips, tits and ass and no stomach fat. Your body type makes you skinny or curvy. Curvy does not mean rolls of fat.

Stomach fat is bad fat. It is not media brainwashing anyone, it is unhealthy and we intuitively know that. A proper diet takes self respect and self control, though. You can blame your genes, or what 'you're meant to weigh' or you cold stop eating sugar.

One funny aspect is that the top model are more 'standardized'. The top models here in Brazil are similar to the american and european top models.
The 'playboy girls' (and other kind of 'sensual fame' women) are more diferent from country to country. Brazilian models are relatively common in US fashion world and vice-versa. But the brazilian playgirls doesnt have the same appeal to americans (and vice versa).
One exception for this is the East Europe that have invaded the porn world since 90's. Alltough East European women are more similar to american women (to me at least) i think that invasion is most because of financial situation and a more liberal aproach to work with sex and doesnt invalidate my point.

Both extremes are not PRETTY nor HEALTHY, that's for sure.
I prefer CURVES, no matter if they are on a thin or a chubby woman, you see ? It's the SHAPE what really counts,plus the way a woman walks what makes her SEXY, her VOICE, her MANNERS and her SMELL !!! I beleive all women can be attractive in some way if they fit in at least one of these categories.There you go, ladies!!!

...Kate Middleton lost a lot of weight when the spotlight came down on her. I think even I would sacrifice and starve away my cherished lumberjack muscles if I thought that the tabloids were highlighting every tiny roll of flesh on my body.

Although its been stated above, this article is actually pretty hurtful to us skinny girls out there...i have a high metabolism and look unusually skinny, and have gotten comments like "you look malnourished" or "are you eating? you would look so much better if you had a little fat on you" it HURTS. and i can't f****in help it! and by the way, i have a boyfriend who loves me and finds me incredibly attractive..i find that guys have different preferences, and your whole article seems pretty general
all i'm gonna say is, ladies- whether you're fat, skinny, curvy or whatever- WHO CARES! stop following what society and dumb articles like this tell you..everyone has difference preferences and we are beautiful no matter what...we need more messages like that